Healthy Fall Favorite Treats

October is underway meaning Halloween is just weeks away! We know that only calls for delicious, sweet and sugary temptations. Although they are hard to resist, it doesn't mean you have to fully break your diet to enjoy the seasonal fare. Certified nutritionist, personal trainer and exercise physiologist, Franci Cohen, shares her recipes for fall that won't have your buttons popping off this time around.

Lowfat Individual Apple Pies in their own shell

​ Ingredients:
- Pie crust
- 6 Granny Smith apples
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

For the filling:
1. Pre heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cut off the top of 4 apples and remove the inside with a spoon or scooper. Be very careful, as to not puncture the peel!
3. With the 2 additional apples, remove the skin and slice very thinly. These apple pieces will be the filling for the mini apple pies.
4. Throw the apple slices in a blow and mix with sugars and cinnamon. Scoop mixture evenly into each of the 4 hollow apples.

For the topping:
1. Roll out pie crust and slice into 1/4 inch strips. Note: You can also add a strip of pastry inside the top of the apple almost like a
liner to add a little more texture and sweetness to the pie.
2. Cover the top of the apple in a lattice pattern with pie crust strips.
3. Place apples in an 8×8 pan and add just enough water to the cover the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.
4. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and sliced apples are soft

Ghostly Chocolate Pretzel Rods:

​ Ingredients:
- 1 box salted pretzel rods
- 16 oz fine white baking chocolate
- An edible ink black baking marker
- Wax paper

Directions:
1. Melt chocolate in double boiler or on the stove.
2. Dip 1 end of a pretzel rod into melted Chocolate to cover pretzel approx. 2" down
3. Lay chocolate covered pretzels on wax paper-lined tray
4. Repeat with remaining pretzels until all are covered in chocolate
5. Place baking tray in freezer for 5 minutes until chocolate hardens
6. Remove pretzel tray from freezer and using baking markers, draw scary ghostly faces on the pretzels.
Your ghostly pretzel rods are ready to eat!

Pumpkin Cranberry Mini Breakfast Muffins:

​ Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup oat flour (or fresh oats finely ground into a flour)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup nonfat milk
- 1 cup fresh cranberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
4. Combine pumpkin, beaten egg, oil and milk in a separate bowl.
5. Make a well in dry ingredients and ddd pumpkin mixture and stir until combined. Lastly, fold in cranberries.
6. Fill muffin cups and bake for 17-22 minutes.

Meet Franci Cohen:
A No Nonsense Approach to Fitness, Health & Your Life
http://francicohen.com

​ Franci Cohen is a personal trainer, certified nutritionist, exercise physiologist and creator of SPIDERBANDS®, a total-body cardio resistance workout that leverages gravity and your bodyweight with other intense exercise modules such as rebounding, kickboxing and indoor cycling. With over 18 years of experience, Franci has been a mainstay in the fitness and nutrition industries. Franci believes in a tough love approach to fitness and health. “We all have our fitness wake-up call at some point in our lives and it can be a powerful catalyst for change,” says Franci. “Unfortunately, many people overcompensate and try to change everything at once, which is a disaster. Making lasting change involves going through stages that aren't necessarily linear. People fluctuate and transition between the stages. Knowing how to move through them can get you where you want to be.” 

Franci devotes much of her time to Fuel Fitness, a specialty fitness center in Brooklyn, NY and continues to teach group fitness classes, train clients and broaden her perspective in all areas of fitness, nutrition and wellness. She designs unique fitness modules and group exercise programs for her clients utilizing the most effective and popular products, tools and exercise equipment available. “Exercise is one of the most important things you can do for your health, but sometimes it’s hard to just get motivated. My goal is to keep it fun and interesting by creating out-of-the-box programs that wow my clients with both the innovative nature of the classes, as well as with the rapid results they see in their bodies! My classes are the ultimate playground where fitness meets fun, and nothing is off limits!”

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